This invention relates to a hood latch for a vehicle. In particular, this invention relates to a hood latch having a self-retracting secondary arm.
Vehicle hood latch systems are well known in the art. Typically, a vehicle hood or trunk deck will have a latch for engaging and cinching onto a striker. The latch will have a rotatably mounted ratchet engaging a pawl in a ratchet relation. The ratchet cooperates with a mouth of the housing to pivot between an open and closed condition for receiving, engaging and cinching a keeper of a striker. The pawl retains the ratchet in the closed and cinched conditions.
Hood latches are required to have a secondary latching mechanism and a primary latching mechanism. The primary latching mechanism is operably from inside the vehicle, normally under the dashboard. A secondary latching is only operable from the outside. The secondary release lever is accessible only after the primary latching mechanism has been deployed, but is usually in a deployable position even though it is not accessible. In many cases, the location of the arm is difficult to find requiring the operator to probe blindly or bend over to look for the arm.
It is known to provide a release lever on the secondary latching mechanism that is presented only upon the release of the primary latch. Examples of such latch mechanism are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,961,601; 4,991,884; 5,000,493 and 5,141,265. However, such mechanisms require complicated linkages and levers, adding costs to the latch. As a result, the use of self presenting secondary release arms has been limited.
The disadvantages of the prior art may be overcome by providing a hood latch assembly for a vehicle having a simple mechanism for self presenting a secondary release arm upon releasing of the primary release and which retracts upon secondary release of the hood.
It is desirable to provide a hood latch assembly having a retracting secondary release that is retracted independently of the closing of the hood minimizing inertial forces on the secondary release lever.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a latch assembly that has a housing having a mouth. A ratchet is pivotally mounted to the housing and is movable to cooperate with the mouth to pivot between an open condition, a primary closed condition and a secondary closed condition for receiving, engaging and cinching a keeper of a striker. The ratchet is biased to the open condition. A pivotally mounted pawl is biased into engagement with the ratchet for releasably retaining the ratchet in the primary closed condition. A secondary release arm is mounted to rotate about a first axis and a second axis. The secondary release arm is rotatable about the first axis between a retracted position and an extended position, and is rotatable about the second axis between an engaging position and a disengaging position. The secondary release arm is biased to the retracted position and biased to the engaging position. The secondary release arm interengages with the ratchet for coupled movement therewith from the primary closed condition to the secondary closed condition effecting movement of the secondary release arm from the retracted position to the extended position upon the pawl being rotated to disengage from the ratchet. Upon moving the secondary release arm from the engaging position to the disengaging position, the secondary release arm disengages from the ratchet for independent movement enabling the ratchet to rotate from the secondary closed condition to the open condition and back to the primary closed condition. The secondary release arm also rotates from the extended position to the retracted position.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a latch assembly having a secondary release arm that includes a plate commonly mounted for pivotal movement therewith. The plate interengaging with a ratchet. The secondary release arm is pivotally mounted in an over center and overlapping relation with the plate, enabling the plate to pivot without causing the secondary release lever to pivot, and coupling the secondary release lever to effect pivoting of the plate.